Most modern automotive vehicles include seat assemblies having a lumbar support. The lumbar support allows a driver to actuate a mechanism to move a lumbar member in the fore and aft direction (i.e. the vehicle longitudinal direction) to provide support to the occupant's lumbar region. The lumbar support relieves lower back stress and provides an increased comfort level while in the vehicle. In order to accommodate occupants of varying sizes it has been known to provide the lumbar support that is displaceable in the vertical direction as well as the fore and aft direction, so as to place the displaced lumbar member at a proper vertical orientation selected by the occupant. However, these previously known systems have a number of disadvantages.
One such disadvantage is the increased cost of the previously known four-way moveable lumbar support assemblies. Specifically, the previously known lumbar support assemblies require an actuator to move the lumbar member in the fore and aft longitudinal direction and a second actuator to move the lumbar member in the vertical direction. The inclusion of two separate actuators, such as electronically controlled motors or hand-operated mechanisms increases the overall cost of the seat assembly. Further, the use of dual actuators increases the bulkiness of the lumbar support assembly requiring additional assembly time which increases both production and labor costs.
Other previously known configurations require use of a curved track to move the lumbar member in a fore and aft manner. This requires a specialized track thereby adding additional parts and weight.
Thus, there exists a need for an improved lumbar support assembly having a configured solution source to allow both the vertical displacement and fore and aft displacement of a lumbar member without increasing weight and cost of the vehicle seat assembly.